Perhaps the most generous teaching of the God or Spiritual Reality of the Universe comes in the second paragraph of the Shma prayer (in Deuteronomy), where it tells us that if we do not create a world based on love, kindness, generosity, ethical and ecological sensitivity, social justice, and peace then the world itself will not work, and there will be an environmental catastrophe and humans and all other animals are in danger of perishing.

These are not the words of an angry patriarch threatening to do this to us, but rather a kind warning that the universe is sending us–a warning that tells us that the ethical and the physical are intrinsically bound together in such a way that when we build a society based on greed, selfishness, materialism, and endless consumption without regard to the consequences for the earth, disaster will follow.

Growing up, I thought this an extravagant and foolish claim tied to an authoritarian, patriarchal, and judgmental god in whom I could not believe; but as an adult I encountered environmental science and learned that it was all true. There are now a host of books that show the concrete steps that lead from ethical irresponsibility toward the earth and toward each other to the resulting environmental crisis (and we regularly review them in Tikkun magazine).

Hurricane Sandy is only the latest manifestation of this truth, and compared with what is coming, a relatively mild reminder. Bill McKibben, who often writes about these issues in Tikkun, recently discussed Hurricane Sandy and climate disaster with Amy Goodman and climate scientist Greg Jones. It’s very well worth your time to listen to it. Here’s an excerpt:

AMY GOODMAN: We’re on the road in Medford, Oregon, broadcasting from Southern Oregon Public Television.

Much of the East Coast is shut down today as residents prepare for Hurricane Sandy, a massive storm that could impact up to 50 million people from the Carolinas to Boston. New York and other cities have shut down schools and transit systems. Hundreds of thousands of people have already been evacuated. Millions could lose power over the next day. The storm has already killed 66 people in the Caribbean, where it battered Haiti and Cuba.

Meteorologists say Sandy could be the largest ever to hit the U.S. mainland. While not as powerful as Hurricane Katrina, the storm stretches a record 520 miles from its eye. Earlier this morning, the National Hurricane Center said the hurricane’s wind speed increased to 85 miles per hour with additional strengthening possible. Describing it as a rare hybrid “superstorm,” forecasters say Sandy was created by an Arctic jet stream wrapping itself around a tropical storm. The storm could cause up to 12 inches of rain in some areas, as well as up to three feet of snowfall in the Appalachian Mountains. Flooding is also expected to be a major problem. The National Weather Service has warned of record-level flooding and “life-threatening storm surges” in coastal areas. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has announced it’s taking special precautions for the storm. There are at least 16 nuclear reactors located within the path of the storm. Six oil refineries are also in the storm’s path.

While the news media have been covering Hurricane Sandy around the clock, little attention has been paid to the possible connection between the storm and climate change. Scientists have long warned how global warming would make North Atlantic hurricanes more powerful. Just two weeks ago, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a major study on the connection between warmer sea surface temperatures and increase in stronger Atlantic hurricanes. The report said, quote, “In particular, we estimate that Katrina-magnitude events have been twice as frequent in warm years compared with cold years.”

We begin today’s show with two guests. With me here in Oregon, we’re joined by Greg Jones, climate scientist and professor of environmental studies at Southern Oregon University in Ashland. And joining us by Democracy Now! video stream is Bill McKibben, co-founder and director of 350.org. He’s author of numerous books, including Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. On November 7th, 350.org is launching a 20-city nationwide tour called “Do the Math” to connect the dots between extreme weather, climate change and the fossil fuel industry.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Let’s start with Bill McKibben. Bill, you’ve just made it back to Vermont, to your home. Can you talk about the significance of what the East Coast is facing right now?

BILL McKIBBEN: Well, I think, Amy, that the first thing is this is a storm of really historic proportion. It’s really like something we haven’t seen before. It’s half, again, the size of Texas. It’s coming across water that’s near record warmth as it makes its way up the East Coast. Apparently we’re seeing lower pressures north of Cape Hatteras than have been ever recorded before. The storm surge, which is going to be the very worst part of this storm, is being driven by that huge size and expanse of the storm, but of course it comes in on water that’s already somewhat higher than it would have been in the past because of sea level rise. It’s—it’s a monster. It’s—Frankenstorm, frankly, is not only a catchy name; in many ways, it’s the right name for it. This thing is stitched together from elements natural and unnatural, and it seems poised to cause real havoc. The governor of Connecticut said yesterday, “The last time we saw anything like this was never.” And I think that’s about right.

AMY GOODMAN: There certainly was a lack of discussion, to put it mildly, in the presidential debates around the issue of climate change.

BILL McKIBBEN: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: I don’t think it was raised at all in the three debates.

BILL McKIBBEN: How do you think Mitt Romney is feeling this morning for having the one mention he’s made the whole time? His big laugh line at the Republican convention was how silly it was for Obama to be talking about slowing the rise of the oceans. I’d say that’s—wins pretty much every prize for ironic right now.

There has been a pervading climate silence. We’re doing our best to break that. Yesterday afternoon, there was a demonstration in Times Square, a sort of giant dot to connect the dots with all the other climate trouble around the world. Overnight, continuing in Boston, there’s a week-long vigil outside Government Center to try and get the Senate candidates there to address the issue of climate change.

It’s incredibly important that we not only—I mean, first priority is obviously people’s safety and assisting relief efforts in every possible way, but it’s also really important that everybody, even those who aren’t in the kind of path of this storm, reflect about what it means that in the warmest year in U.S. history, when we’ve seen the warmest month, July, of any month in a year in U.S. history, in a year when we saw, essentially, summer sea ice in the Arctic just vanish before our eyes, what it means that we’re now seeing storms of this unprecedented magnitude. If there was ever a wake-up call, this is it.

AMY GOODMAN: Let me play the clip you’re referring to of Mitt Romney at the Republican convention in Tampa.

MITT ROMNEY: President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family.

AMY GOODMAN: That was Mitt Romney at the conventions, but—at the Republican convention. But again, when it came to the presidential debate, neither President Obama nor Mitt Romney raised the issue of climate change. I wanted to bring Greg Jones, climate scientist and professor of environmental studies here at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, into the conversation. The connection between the superstorm we’re seeing and climate change?

GREG JONES: Well, this is clearly a very unique event. And I—as a climate scientist, to some degree, I kind of worry that these type of unique events are clearly more frequent in the future. We have the conditions that have produced something that could be very damaging for the East Coast of the United States, and I often wonder why we don’t seem more of them. But, you know, the question is, today is, is that where we are in terms of our climate science understanding of these things, the rarity of this event is what makes it very unique. And I think all of the conditions came together to produce a superstorm. And we’ve had a few that have been close to this, but given the number of people involved and the location where it’s coming onshore, it’s a very problematic event.

18 Responses to “Hurricane Sandy and Environmental Catastrophe”

At the moment this is not a about climate change and I do thunk it is happening., It was a collision of 2 storms, one of the west and a hurricane turned Nor’easter from the southeast.It resampled the “perfect storm” of 1993 which was centered far out at seaLast winter we dis nt experience on Nor’easter, which was weird in itself. . Like most rational people, I prefer discussing the science of the occurrence rather than agendas. And may I remind the great Rabbi of the west that he shod be expressing sue compassion for this who are struggling now rather than sourcing tyne unreliable Amy Goodman.

As for climate change, what ever damage has been done cannot be reversed with the wave of a wand.

Rick, I never said I do not support the idea of climate change, I juts don’t lie to attribute one weather event to it. That is much like Tea Partiers pointing to the excessively snowy winter of 2009 in the northeast US as evidence that global warming is a fraud. Interestingly enough, last year we did not have any nor’easters on the eastern seaboard of the US. That was a first.

If we have a chiain of mega storms, it is easier to point out a trend. There is other evidence of global warming or climate change out there. But trying to make the argument that 2 merging systems =climate change is does not necessarily al the proof you need. From what I understand, 2 storms form opposite direction merged and stalled over the east coast. The stall was what made the stem especially dangerous.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57541877/hurricane-sandy-gains-strength-speed-on-east-coast-path/
“Forecasters said the combination of Sandy with the storm from the west and the cold air from the Arctic could bring close to a foot of rain in places, a potentially lethal storm surge of 4 to 11 feet across much of the region, and punishing winds that could cause widespread power outages that last for days. The storm could also dump up to 2 feet of snow in Kentucky, North Carolina and West Virginia.”

I really do not going mobs of cat calling from either side. I prefer the scientific evaluation of the phenomena before jumping to conclusions.

Finally I do think we have to cut down on emissions and seek alternative energy sources and it should be done with a government private sector partnership. I don’t like the anti environmental agenda of the GOP.

The whole argument about whether or not a single event can be proven to be caused by a trend seems to me to be beside the point. Of course this is a valid question, and must always be; any single event MIGHT be caused by anything one wishes to imagine, but with regard to something as important as climate change the argument strikes me as far more distracting than useful.

A steadily growing number of responsible investigators (professional and otherwise) have been warning us for decades about the predictable effects of the human race having poured, since the Industrial Revolution, enormous amounts of gases into their planet’s atmosphere; gases which can be reliably predicted to have a number of results quite damaging to human and other life on earth. Just such events have been happening, in increasing numbers and with increasing severity. The claim is not that these events aren’t part of a natural cycle; it’s that the above human activities have substantially exaggerated the normal course of events, and that if we can find ways to curtail these activities we may be able to save ourselves (and the rest of life on earth) from what we have good reason to fear could be catastrophic consequences.

Sheesh! Even if one doubts the significance of two billion people being threatened with loss of fresh water as the Himalayan glaciers melt, or the self-evident concerns inherent in radically disturbing any planet’s God-given heat/cold balance (as the ice caps shrink), whatever happened to “Better safe than sorry”?l

BTW, I know of no commentator on these issues who has been consistently more accurate or who has provided more extensive and meaningful context than Rabbi Lerner. He is a treasure. So is Amy Goodman.

What ever it is, there are other factors that contribute to the damage we see form storms. We have see unprecedented development along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coast, so the human factor is a major part of these storms. If the storm did not hit the NJ coast but hit a large swath of empty castle, would we even be seeing a blog about it. The answer is simple. There was a similar mega storm in 1991 that remained out at sea.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Perfect_Storm

We do have climate change, but it is for human activity for all over the planet. I might suggest that India and China are the ones who are moving up as the major contributors to green house gases. But I am sure Amy Goodman and Faux Rabbi Lerner would happily point fingers at Americans. I have listed to Amy Goodman, I would not cal her a treasure. I would call her a subjective interviewer loaded down with an agenda. Rabbi Lerner? Well, he has been caught . He and his cohorts lie to yack about issue but I have yet to see one fund raiser that benefits people in need, if he clopped his blog with links to ways refers can contribute to victims of the hurricane, perhaps he would come out looking better, But we never see this., I would venture to say that he and hs staff have never raised a dime for anyone one in need. They are talking heads only.

Sea level is up about 10″ in the last century, due to global warming. That alone made Sandy more destructive. And water temps are above normal, making the hurricane stronger. And the extra open water in the arctic allowed more evaporation, providing more water vapor to power the storm. And, and, and. All these things add up to catastrophe. AND, the fossil corps are buying the government to prevent alternate energy from being developed. If they succeed in burning all the fossil fuel on earth, most people on earth will die.

The fact that the storm collided with a nor’easter was attributed to the melting of the ice in Greenland. As people have said, normally a serious storm blows out to sea. This storm blew inland because the currents aren’t flowing normally, and that is due to the melting icecaps. This video from NPR’s Science Friday explains why Sandy may have “turned left” towards the US coast and how climate change is involved:

Nina, this was not the 1st super storm with such a collision, The last one was in 1993, but was out at sea. Sandy collided with a storm coming form the west and was held in by a high pressure system. The damage was attributed to the fact that the storm was held in bu =y that high press system It did not help matters that Sandy made landfall at high tide under a full moon. Thats a double whammy..

Last winter, we had one nor’easter and this year only one Atlantic hurricane made landfall.

Like I said, I support the theory of climate change, but I do not like to finger point at every storm.

We need to make dramatic changes to our ways. Yes, a lot of damage has already been done, but much much much much worse is on the way if we don’t take action now. Bill McKibben and has answers. We need to listen and act.

Yes, severe weather events are occuring all over the world but it’s the U.S. that burns about 25% of the world’s fossil fuels.
Every major, reputable scientific institution, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to the National Academy of Sciences to NASA, agrees that the Earth is warming rapidly and that human activity (specifically carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas), plays a significant role in that, with some fossil fuels emitting more CO2 than others..
From driving our cars to burning fossil fuels to heat our homes, we are causing the release of CO2, which traps heat and warms the planet. The evidence for such warming can be found in melting glaciers (virtually everywhere), warming ocean temperatures, rising sea levels, chemical evidence, impacts on human health, and more. So although we can’t pin Sandy on climate change, there is a relationship here.
Across the globe, many countries are jockeying to take a leadership role in clean energy investments. Where is the U.S.? Romney mocks efforts to clean dirty coal plants and, for him, clean, renewable energy is a very low priority. Obama has seemed reluctant to talk about it recently, although he did raise car and truck fuel-efficiency standards, a step in the right direction.

The US is being surpassed by China and India is catching up. Emissions is global problem not just a US problem. Don’t forget tyne emerging economies have people who want that ease opt middle class comfort and those countries do to even come near the western world wit environmental standards. Also Canadian oil tycoons are more than anxious to send the dirtier oil sands our way and around the world. So the US may have a problem but they are juts part if it.

sammy: I didn’t mean to imply that other countries–particularly emerging economies– were not contributing to the CO2 emissions problem, especially China which burns more coal than we do but the U.S. does its share and probably more so from an historical point of view due to a longer period of a consumptive lifestyle. CO2 remains in the atmosphere for a long time.
As for the Keystone XL pipeline, that’s a 1700 mile long pipeline that will transport the world’s dirtiest oil to the ports of Texas where it can be exported to China to keep their factories humming. We get the potential impacts. China gets the oil. As one scientist observed, it’s “game over” for the climate if that pipeline is built.

Pastor John McTernan Ph.D, founder of Defend and Proclaim the Faith Ministries, is a staunch defender of Israel and one of those Christian evangelist preachers who still believe that US President Barack Hussein Obama is a Crypto Muslim (secretly a Muslim).

On October 28, 2012, the good-old paster posted on his official website ‘John McTernan’s Insight’ that Hurricane Sandy and earlier Hurricane Isaac and Hurricane Katrina – are all signs that “the Holy God of Israel is systematically destroying America right before our eyes”.

McTernan believes that ever since George Bush Sr signed the Madrid Peace Process to divide the land of Israel in 1991, ‘America has been under God’s judgment since this event’.

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